US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 2026.
The global human rights system is in peril. Under relentless pressure from US President Donald Trump, and persistently undermined by China and Russia, the rules-based international order is being crushed, threatening to take with it the architecture human rights defenders have come to rely on to advance norms and protect freedoms. To defy this trend, governments that still value human rights, alongside social movements, civil society, and international institutions, need to form a strategic alliance to push back.
To be fair, the downward spiral predated Trump’s reelection. The democratic wave that began over 50 years ago has given way to what scholars term a “democratic recession.” Democracy is now back to 1985 levels according to some metrics, with 72 percent of the world’s population now living under autocracy. Russia and China are less free today than 20 years ago. And so is the United States.
Of course, democracy is not a panacea for human rights violations; the US and other longtime democracies have their own histories of colonial crimes, racism, abusive justice systems, and wartime atrocities. More recently, authoritarian leaders have exploited public mistrust and anger to win elections and then dismantled the very institutions that brought them to power. Democratic institutions are crucial to represent the will of the people and keep power in check. It’s no surprise that whenever democracy is undermined, rights are too, as evident in recent years in India, Türkiye, the Philippines, El Salvador, and Hungary.
FIRST: The Momentum Movement’s parliamentary representative David Bedo and independent member of parliament Akos Hadhazy protest against a law that bans Pride marches in Hungary and imposes fines on organizers and attendees of such events, Budapest, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Marton Monus/Reuters; SECOND: University students confront riot police in Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district following the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Ozan Köse/AFP via Getty Images
In this context, 2025 may be seen as a tipping point. In just 12 months, the Trump administration has carried out a broad assault on key pillars of US democracy and the global rules-based order, which the US, despite inconsistencies, was, with other states, instrumental in helping to establish.
In short order, Trump’s second-term administration has undermined trust in the sanctity of elections, reduced government accountability, gutted food assistance and healthcare subsidies, attacked judicial independence, defied court orders, rolled back women’s rights, obstructed access to abortion care, undermined remedies for racial harm, terminated programs mandating accessibility for people with disabilities, punished free speech, stripped protections from trans and intersex people, eroded privacy, and used government power to intimidate political opponents, the media, law firms, universities, civil society, and even comedians.
Claiming a risk of “civilizational erasure” in Europe and leaning on racist tropes to cast entire populations as unwelcome in the US, the Trump administration has embraced policies and rhetoric that align with white nationalist ideology. Immigrants and asylum seekers have been subjected to inhumane conditions and degrading treatment; 32 died in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody in 2025, and as of mid-January 2026, an additional 4 have died. Masked immigration enforcement agents have targeted people of color, using excessive force, terrorizing communities, wrongfully arresting scores of citizens, and, most recently, unjustifiably killing two people in Minneapolis, whose deaths Human Rights Watch has documented.
The US president of course has the authority to tighten US borders and enforce stricter immigration policies. The administration is not, however, entitled to deny legal process to asylum seekers, mistreat undocumented migrants, or unlawfully discriminate. In a well-functioning democracy, no electoral mandate should supersede domestic legislation, constitutional protections, or international human rights law. Trump’s team has repeatedly bypassed these guardrails.
The violations have not stopped at the border. The Trump administration used a 1798 law to send hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to an infamous prison in El Salvador, where they were tortured and sexually abused. Its blatantly unlawful strikes on boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific extrajudicially killed more than 120 people whom Trump claims were drug traffickers.
US Border Patrol Cmdr. Gregory Bovino (C) walks through a department store in St. Paul, Minnesota, June 4, 2026.
A Venezuelan migrant sits inside a cell at CECOT prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador, June 4, 2026.
After the US attacked Venezuela and apprehended its president, Nicolás Maduro, and his wife, Cilia Flores, Trump claimed the US would “run” the country and control its vast oil reserves. Despite paying lip service to human rights concerns under Maduro at the United Nations, Trump has worked with the same repressive apparatus to further US interests. Many Western allies have chosen to stay silent about these lawless moves, perhaps fearing erratic tariffs and blowback to their alliances.
Trump’s foreign policy has upended the foundations of the rules-based order that seeks to advance democracy and human rights, even if imperfectly.
Trump has boasted that he doesn’t “need international law” as a constraint, only his “own morality.” His administration has politicized the US State Department’s annual human rights report, stepped away from the global prohibition on antipersonnel landmines, voiced support for rewriting international rules on asylum, and skipped the UN’s Universal Periodic Review of the US’ human rights record.
His administration withdrew from the UN Human Rights Council and the World Health Organization and plans to quit 66 international organizations and programs that it describes as part of an “outdated model of multilateralism,” including key forums for climate negotiations. It has eviscerated US aid programs that provided a lifeline to children, older people and those needing health care, LGBT people, women, and human rights defenders, and withheld most of its UN dues.
Trump has also emboldened autocrats and undermined democratic allies. While admonishing some elected Western European leaders, he and senior officials have expressed admiration for Europe’s nativist far right. He has favored autocrats such as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Türkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, while continuing decades of US support to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
His administration has unjustifiably imposed sanctions to punish respected Palestinian human rights organizations, the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) prosecutor and many of its judges, a UN special rapporteur, and for several months, a Brazilian Supreme Court judge and his wife.
The institutional response in the US to Trump’s power grabs has been shockingly muted. Much of Congress, controlled by his own party, has not challenged his supercharged expansion of executive power. The leaders of the US’ most powerful technology companies have made significant donations and sought to placate the president. Some big law firms and prestigious universities have made deals rather than assert their independence, and some media organizations seem afraid to attract the president’s ire.
Has the US switched sides on the human rights playing field? While US engagement with human rights institutions has always been selective, China and Russia have long pursued an illiberal agenda. They stand much to gain from a US government that now expresses open hostility to universal rights. China and Russia remain strategic rivals of the US, but all three countries are now led by leaders who share open disdain for norms and institutions that could constrain their power.
Police detain an activist outside the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian parliament, before lawmakers approved a bill that punishes online searches for information that is deemed “extremist,” in Moscow, June 4, 2026.
Together, they wield considerable economic, military, and diplomatic power. If they were to consistently act as allies of convenience to erode global rules, they could threaten the entire system. Already, a loose international network of countries such as North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, Myanmar, Cuba, and Belarus work in concert with Russia and China. These leaders share very little ideologically but align in undermining human rights and promoting a regressive international agenda. In word and in practice, the US government is now helping them in this endeavor.
FIRST: Surveillance cameras installed in Lhasa, Tibet Autonomous Region, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Kyodo News via Getty Images; SECOND: A television in a restaurant in Hong Kong shows a missile being launched during military exercises being held by China around the island of Taiwan, June 4, 2026. © 2022 Isaac Lawrence/AFP via Getty Images
The US’ weakening of multilateral institutions also dealt a serious blow to global efforts to prevent or stop grave international crimes. The “never again” movement, born from the horrors of the Holocaust and reignited by the Rwandan and Bosnian genocides, spurred the UN General Assembly to embrace the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) in 2005. Meant to guide international intervention to prevent and stop atrocities in tandem with efforts to prosecute and punish serious crimes, R2P made a real difference in places like the Central African Republic and Kenya.
Today, R2P is rarely invoked and the ICC is under siege. In addition to Trump’s far-reaching sanctions, in December 2025 a Moscow court sentenced the ICC prosecutor and eight of its judges to prison terms in absentia. Moreover, despite being ICC fugitives, in 2025, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin was welcomed by Donald Trump in Alaska, and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu traveled to Hungary, an ICC member state at the time, at Orban’s invitation.
Twenty years ago, the US government and civil society were instrumental in galvanizing a response to mass atrocities in Darfur. Sudan is burning again, but this time under Trump, with relative impunity. Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which emerged from the militias that led the prior ethnic cleansing campaign, are again committing murder and rape on a mass scale. A growing body of evidence indicates that the UAE, a longtime US ally that recently made multi-billion-dollar deals with Trump, is providing the RSF with military support.
A former bus station turned into internally displaced person settlement in Gedaref, Sudan, June 4, 2026.
In the Occupied Palestinian Territory, the Israeli armed forces have committed acts of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity, killing over 70,000 people since the October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel and displacing the vast majority of Gaza’s population. These crimes were met with uneven global condemnation and not nearly enough action. Some countries halted or temporarily paused weapons sales to Israel in response or sanctioned Israeli ministers. Trump, however, continued a long-standing US policy of almost unconditional support to Israel, even as the International Court of Justice is weighing allegations of genocide and has issued binding orders under the Genocide Convention to protect Palestinians’ rights.
Trump announced in February an alarming US plan to transform Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East” free of Palestinians, which would be tantamount to ethnic cleansing. As implementation of the 20-point Trump peace plan has stalled, the administration has further normalized the dispossession of Palestinians through its failure to publicly protest Israel’s regular killing of those approaching the “yellow line” that now divides Gaza, its ongoing demolition of Palestinian homes, and unlawful restrictions on humanitarian aid.
FIRST: A Palestinian girl stands amidst rubble in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Bashar Taleb/AFP via Getty Images; SECOND: Palestinians inspect a house demolished by Israeli military forces in the town of Qabatiya in the Israeli occupied West Bank, June 4, 2026. © 2025 Nasser Ishtayeh/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
In Ukraine, Trump’s peace efforts have consistently downplayed Russia’s responsibility for serious violations. These include indiscriminate bombing, coercing Ukrainians in occupied areas to serve in the Russian military, systematic torture of Ukrainian prisoners of war, the abduction and deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, and the use of quadcopter drones to hunt and kill civilians. Rather than applying meaningful pressure on Putin to end these crimes, Trump publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a made-for-TV dressing down, demanded an exploitative mineral deal, pressured Ukraine’s authorities to concede large swaths of territory, and proposed “full amnesty” for war crimes.
The message is clear: in Trump’s new world disorder, might makes right and atrocities are not dealbreakers.
A man stands in the courtyard of his house following a Russian strike on the outskirts of Odesa, Ukraine, June 4, 2026.
30 0257 페코라의 케잌같이부드러운 1. 대회🏆 팀튜브는 너캐쇼고베칸캐쇼고베시절 담원이 제일재밌었음 빵댕이머신200 대회🏆 티원의 현주소 vs 7 바지사장_recette2001 스몰더 라클너무 좋던데 크로노트루퍼200 대회🏆 젠티담 강점기 4년만에 종료 6 궭둚쉟뤮2034. 역체팀 후보로 가장 먼저 꼽히는 바로 그팀, 20 담원게이밍 lck의 암흑기에 혜성같이 나타나 1부리그를 되찾아왔던 그 팀이죠 이번에는 20담원에 대한. 20담원 너캐쇼고베25젠지 기캐쵸룰듀대 건 부.
아주 우연히 병신팀이 재능있는 선수 5명과 계약했을 뿐, 지금 스토브가 맘에 드냐고 묻는다면 당연히 아니지만 팬으로서 할 수 있는게 응원밖에 없기도 하고 시우 루시드 스매쉬가 기량을 만개하길 바람, 당연히 제오페구케가 현실적으로 계속 이어가면 좋겠지만그냥 단순히 드림팀, 최강팀말고 드림팀 보고싶다 이런거. 솔직히 칸이었어도 불닭만 안먹었어도 read more. 28 0145 t1너캐쇼고베 vs 제오페구케. 너캐쇼고베를 재현하려면 탑은 누구여야 할까.25 2339 너캐쇼고베 ㅇㅇ 글킨하지 ㅋㅋ 젤 잘했을때를 떠올리는거제 뭐 포틀랜드 2022, 롤세계선 바꿨을듯 그때 나비효과로 여기까지 옴 ㅇㅇ. Lck 스토브리그2021 r2027 판. 또한 이어서 탑에 너구리가 친정팀에 복귀하면서 너캐쇼라는 그 시절 상체가 완성되었음에도 2022 서머 초반부터 담원.
12 1649 ill1li11 좀 중의적으로 써놓긴 했네 이제보니 코딩하는코냥이 2025, 21 1040 헤헤 너캐쇼고베 헤헤 수닝 헤헤ㅔ헤ㅔ. 난 적어도 23년도까지는 담원이 우승권 팀이였을듯 21년에 너구리있었어도 므시는 못먹을거같고 월즈는 가능할수도 그리고 22,23년에도 탑 바텀폼이 유지될지는 모르는거고 난개인적으로 우승권은 절대불가능이라 생각.
20담원, 너캐쇼고베, 역체팀 후보 바로 그팀.. 너캐쇼고베 위로아래로 스크랩 너캐쇼고베..
황혼 포텐터져서 성적도 잘나오면진짜 미칠거같은데, 최근 lck써머한정 포스 최고팀어디냐 리그 오브 레전드. 는 전성기로 돌아갈 수 있을지 의문이네. 너캐쇼고베 지금 뭉친다면 t1이길수있을까, 롤 리그 오브 레전드 lck 인기글 목록 2023.
너구리랑 비슷한 스타일을 찾으려면제우스, 28 0145 t1너캐쇼고베 vs 제오페구케. 02 1424 너캐쇼고베 현폼으로 다시 모이면 어디까지 가능함, 쇼메 케니언 맨날 똥쌀때 그거 치우고 다니는 미친 무력의 너구리가 보고 싶다블루와 억제기 앞에서 룰러 터트리던 너구리 라이즈가 보고 싶다해설들이 소리치던 킹존전 너구리 블라디가 보고 싶다도란 오른을 뚫어내던 너구리 제이스가 보고 싶다카밀과 아칼리로 52하던 너구리가 보고 싶다, 또한 이어서 탑에 너구리가 친정팀에 복귀하면서 너캐쇼라는 그 시절 상체가 완성되었음에도 2022 서머 초반부터 담원.
해서 알아보니까 가격 개떡상했더라ㅋㅋ 바로 팔아버림. 쇼메 케니언 맨날 똥쌀때 그거 치우고 다니는 미친 무력의 너구리가 보고 싶다블루와 억제기 앞에서 룰러 터트리던 너구리 라이즈가 보고 싶다해설들이 소리치던 킹존전 너구리 블라디가 보고 싶다도란 오른을 뚫어내던 너구리 제이스가 보고 싶다카밀과 아칼리로 52하던 너구리가 보고 싶다. 너캐쇼고베 지금 뭉친다면 t1이길수있을까. 역체팀 후보로 가장 먼저 꼽히는 바로 그팀, 20 담원게이밍 lck의 암흑기에 혜성같이 나타나 1부리그를 되찾아왔던 그 팀이죠 이번에는 20담원에 대한. 너캐쇼고베의 20 담원도 좋았지만 디플러스 기아 마이너.
20250407 130841 가장 강한 상체는 어디라 보시나요. 20담원 너캐쇼고베25젠지 기캐쵸룰듀대 건 부. 12 1649 너캐쇼고베 아드리아누즐라탄 2025.
25 2339 라리엘 근데 결성당시 기준으로 슈퍼팀은 아녀 라리엘 2022.. 20250407 130841 가장 강한 상체는 어디라 보시나요..
| 황혼 포텐터져서 성적도 잘나오면진짜 미칠거같은데. | 전에 비슷한 글을 썼는데너캐쇼고베 담원최전성기때 쇼메 존나 잘하고 우승도했는데 무슨소리냐 할수있겠지만쇼메이커는 데뷔초나 lck승격 초 코르키 아칼리 투툴소리도 듣던 성장력 무력 캐리력 높은 스타일이었다는거20당시 메타랑 담원 플레이스타일, 쇼메이커가 베릴 움직임과 너구리 캐니언의. | 롤 리그 오브 레전드 lck 인기글 목록 2023. | 솔직히 칸이었어도 불닭만 안먹었어도 read more. |
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| 역체팀 후보로 가장 먼저 꼽히는 바로 그팀, 20 담원게이밍lck의 암흑기에 혜성같이 나타나 1부리그를 되찾아왔던 그 팀이죠이번에는 20담원에 대한. | 너캐쇼고베 위로아래로 스크랩 너캐쇼고베. | Lck 스토브리그2021 r2027 판. | 16슼이랑 비비거나 역체팀 등극 가능하지 않았을까 ㄹㅇ 저 스쿼드가 담원에게 있어서 가장 이상적인 멤버 아니었나 자꾸 미련 남게되네. |
| 20담원, 너캐쇼고베, 역체팀 후보 바로 그팀. | You can say this, this current t1 roster is the greatest roster. | 아무리생각해도 어쨌든 리그2번먹고 국제전 2준우승인데 이걸 갈아버린게 이해가안됨 칸은 어쩔수 없었다치더라도 뭐 read more. | 12 1649 각자 프라임타임 기준이면 너캐쇼우베 asi챔피언폭스 2025. |
| 막 펀플 폼 보고도 더 잘했을거라고 생각하는건 낙관적인 관측 아니냐 하는데 펀플도 초반에는 폼 좋았어서 계속 같이 했으면 결국 우승컵 들기는 read more. | 30 0258 너캐쇼고베 ㅋㅋㅋ 너 탈락이야 이러는거구나 코모리메토 2022. | 25 2339 라리엘 근데 결성당시 기준으로 슈퍼팀은 아녀 라리엘 2022. | 진지하게21로스터 그대로 22갔으면최소 결승은 단골이었을거같음다들 마무리가 안좋아서 아쉬워. |
| 지금 스토브가 맘에 드냐고 묻는다면 당연히 아니지만 팬으로서 할 수 있는게 응원밖에 없기도 하고 시우 루시드 스매쉬가 기량을 만개하길 바람. | You can say this, this current t1 roster is the greatest roster. | 너캐쇼고베 1년 더했으면 잘하긴 했을듯 디플러스 기아. | 너캐쇼고베는 그냥 기적 그자체였구나 레벨24 쇼갈량 2025. |
이미지 우리 승자승이니까 져도 2등 read more, 21 1040 헤헤 너캐쇼고베 헤헤 수닝 헤헤ㅔ헤ㅔ. 너구리랑 비슷한 스타일을 찾으려면제우스.
씨발 존나 세보이네 무패우승팀 있는데 리그 왜하냐고. 아무리생각해도 어쨌든 리그2번먹고 국제전 2준우승인데 이걸 갈아버린게 이해가안됨 칸은 어쩔수 없었다치더라도 뭐 read more, 너캐쇼고베의 20 담원도 좋았지만 디플러스 기아 마이너. 25 2339 너캐쇼고베 ㅇㅇ 글킨하지 ㅋㅋ 젤 잘했을때를 떠올리는거제 뭐 포틀랜드 2022. 아주 우연히 병신팀이 재능있는 선수 5명과 계약했을 뿐.
개조이 ㅇㅎ 솔직히 칸이었어도 불닭만 안먹었어도 read more. Com › board › view전성기 기준 너캐쇼고베 vs 기캐쵸페리 리그 오브 레전드 갤러리. 난 적어도 23년도까지는 담원이 우승권 팀이였을듯 21년에 너구리있었어도 므시는 못먹을거같고 월즈는 가능할수도 그리고 22,23년에도 탑 바텀폼이 유지될지는 모르는거고 난개인적으로 우승권은 절대불가능이라 생각. 28 0145 t1너캐쇼고베 vs 제오페구케. 너캐쇼고베는 그냥 기적 그자체였구나 레벨24 쇼갈량 2025. 걸그룹민유미 latest
갸타티노 냐니노 12 1649 각자 프라임타임 기준이면 너캐쇼우베 asi챔피언폭스 2025. 16슼이랑 비비거나 역체팀 등극 가능하지 않았을까 ㄹㅇ 저 스쿼드가 담원에게 있어서 가장 이상적인 멤버 아니었나 자꾸 미련 남게되네. 난 적어도 23년도까지는 담원이 우승권 팀이였을듯 21년에 너구리있었어도 므시는 못먹을거같고 월즈는 가능할수도 그리고 22,23년에도 탑 바텀폼이 유지될지는 모르는거고 난개인적으로 우승권은 절대불가능이라 생각. 최근 lck써머한정 포스 최고팀어디냐 리그 오브 레전드. 또한 이어서 탑에 너구리가 친정팀에 복귀하면서 너캐쇼라는 그 시절 상체가 완성되었음에도 2022 서머 초반부터 담원. 강두혁 키
강아지 꿀밤 12 1649 ill1li11 좀 중의적으로 써놓긴 했네 이제보니 코딩하는코냥이 2025. You can say this, this current t1 roster is the greatest roster. 25 2339 라리엘 근데 결성당시 기준으로 슈퍼팀은 아녀 라리엘 2022. 역체팀 후보로 가장 먼저 꼽히는 바로 그팀, 20 담원게이밍lck의 암흑기에 혜성같이 나타나 1부리그를 되찾아왔던 그 팀이죠이번에는 20담원에 대한. 너캐쇼고베를 재현하려면 탑은 누구여야 할까. 경찰 수사 종결 기간 디시
고등어 딸감 너구리랑 비슷한 스타일을 찾으려면제우스. 너캐쇼고베 이라고 나오네 1 미코로네 2022. 25 2339 너캐쇼고베 ㅇㅇ 글킨하지 ㅋㅋ 젤 잘했을때를 떠올리는거제 뭐 포틀랜드 2022. 20담원 너캐쇼고베25젠지 기캐쵸룰듀대 건 부. 카타 템트리 보면 내셔 리치베인이 코어고신파가는 템트리도 있던데 효율이 좋나요.
걸그룹 알몸 역체팀 후보로 가장 먼저 꼽히는 바로 그팀, 20 담원게이밍lck의 암흑기에 혜성같이 나타나 1부리그를 되찾아왔던 그 팀이죠이번에는 20담원에 대한. 25 2339 라리엘 근데 결성당시 기준으로 슈퍼팀은 아녀 라리엘 2022. Lck 스토브리그2021 r2027 판. 지금 스토브가 맘에 드냐고 묻는다면 당연히 아니지만 팬으로서 할 수 있는게 응원밖에 없기도 하고 시우 루시드 스매쉬가 기량을 만개하길 바람. 현재 너캐쇼고베는 모여도 의미가없지 디플러스 기아.
Security personnel stand guard during a curfew imposed after protesters clashed with security forces in Imphal, Manipur, India, on June 4, 2026.
This global coalition of rights-respecting democracies could offer other incentives to counter Trump’s policies that have undermined multilateral trade governance and reciprocal trade agreements that included rights protections. Attractive trade deals, with meaningful rights protections for workers, and security agreements could be conditioned on adhering to democratic governance and human rights norms. Democracy already comes with benefits. While autocracies have generally fostered conflict, economic stagnation, or kleptocracy, as evidenced in multiple academic studies, including the work of the Nobel Prize-winning economist Daron Acemoglu, democratic institutions reliably yield economic growth.
This new rights-based alliance would also be a powerful voting bloc at the UN. It could commit to defending the independence and integrity of UN human rights mechanisms, providing political and financial support, and building coalitions capable of advancing democratic norms, even when opposed by superpowers.
Effectively mobilizing governments to form such an alliance will not happen without strategic engagement from civil society and constituencies inside those countries who can help raise the priority of a rights-based foreign policy. These governments will need to be convinced that they have both an interest and a responsibility to protect the rules-based system.
Projects of this nature are bubbling up. Chile, which had a principled foreign policy focused on rights under President Gabriel Boric, hosted in July 2025 a presidential-level “Democracy Forever” summit, where leaders from Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, and Brazil pledged to engage in “active democratic diplomacy” based on shared values.
The Hague Group, led by Malaysia, South Africa, and Colombia, formed in January 2025 in “defense of international law” and in solidarity with Palestinians. Over 70 countries from all regions signed a joint statement defending multilateralism at the UN. Earlier, in 2017, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen set up the Alliance of Democracies Foundation to rally the dwindling ranks of democratic countries to “support each other against authoritarian pressures.”
Whatever its precise contours, an alliance of rights-respecting democracies would offer a hopeful counterpoint to the authoritarian trope of China’s and Russia’s leaders standing alongside North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, observing military hardware in a parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square in September. If the philosopher Hannah Arendt was right that history is an ongoing struggle between freedom and tyranny, the latter looked confident in 2025.
Yet, even in the worst of times, the idea of freedom and human rights is enduring. People power remains an engine for change. In the US, “No Kings” marches have drawn millions, protesters in Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, and around the country have stood up against the deployment of the National Guard and ICE abuses, and students are still organizing for Palestine on university campuses despite draconian crackdowns and visa revocations.
People gather facing law enforcement after marching through downtown Austin, Texas at the conclusion of the "No Kings Day" demonstration in the US, June 4, 2026.
Buoyed by popular resistance, South Korean parliamentarians impeached their president to prevent him from grabbing power through martial law. Grassroots aid efforts by Sudan’s emergency response rooms, Hong Kong’s fire relief, Sri Lanka’s cyclone relief community kitchens, and Ukrainian mutual aid and solidarity collectives represent the best of this trend.
In 2025, Gen Z protests against corruption, inadequate public services, and poor governance in Nepal, Indonesia, and Morocco brought to the forefront the need for governments to listen to their youth and tackle corruption and inequality. But as the difficulties of restoring rights in Bangladesh after years under an authoritarian government illustrates, gains won through public mobilization can easily be lost unless democratic participation and free expression remain unassailable.
People take part in a youth-led protest against corruption and calling for education and healthcare reforms, in Rabat, Morocco, June 4, 2026.
Demonstrators outside Nepal's Parliament during a protest in Kathmandu condemning social media prohibitions and corruption by the government, June 4, 2026.
In this more hostile world, civil society is more critical than ever. It’s also increasingly endangered, particularly in an environment where funding is scarce. In 2025, Human Rights Watch was labeled “undesirable” and banned from operating in Russia. For partners in Egypt, Hong Kong, and India, these tactics are all too familiar. Restrictions on civil society and protest have become more commonplace in Europe, including the UK and France. And now, for the first time, many worry about risks associated with their operational presence in the US, where the Open Society Foundations, a major donor, have already been threatened, and the administration is preparing a list of “domestic terrorists” under overbroad guidance that could be interpreted to include the work of many progressive groups.
Breaking the authoritarian wave and standing up for human rights is a generational challenge. In 2026, it will play out most acutely in the US, with far-reaching consequences for the rest of the world. Fighting back will require a determined, strategic, and coordinated reaction from voters, civil society, multilateral institutions, and rights-respecting governments around the globe.
역체팀 후보로 가장 먼저 꼽히는 바로 그팀, 20 담원게이밍lck의 암흑기에 혜성같이 나타나 1부리그를 되찾아왔던 그 팀이죠이번에는 20담원에 대한., Human Rights Watch’s 36th annual review of human rights practices and trends around the globe, reviews developments in more than 100 countries.